It was my first Friday night in Taichung and the stress of preparing for my first teaching demonstration the afternoon before had melted away.

Initially I’d tried to ask the night shift hotel reception girl if she could recommend anywhere nearby but she said she didn’t know. Either I’d massively misjudged her age or she’d never been out before (or was just worried I was asking her questions).

Realising it’d be up to me to find somewhere to go I headed back up to my hotel room and hit the internet for answers. From what I gathered the western district of Taichung was where most of the foreigner bars were.

Not that I had any worries about going to a Taiwanese bar but I’d read that most of the nightclubs are run by gangster types. I didn’t particularly feel confident enough yet in knowing how to respond if somebody cracked the shits with me because I didn’t know what I was doing.

I figured playing it safe was my best bet. Worst case scenario and there were only foreigners there at least I could network and maybe learn some stuff.

After spending about an hour researching what was available I settled on a place called Lobby. It was billed as a hiphop club and was probably a place I wouldn’t bother with back at home.

After four days of language barriers and stressing out about my teaching demonstration truth be told I didn’t really care where I went out. So long as they served alcohol and I could get there and back without getting lost.

I brought up the Chinese address in Google and went downstairs to get the receptionist to write it down. Taxi drivers here can’t read or speak too much English so if you don’t know where you’re going it’s better to have the Chinese address written down to make things easier (also to avoid any spelling variations between Google and reality).

I’d decided to set off around 10:30’ish so had a few hours to kill. After a quick dinner at the café next to the hotel (a big crumbed pork steak thing in a bowl of noodles) I went back upstairs for a few hours of sleep.

At 10’ish I headed downstairs and jumped in the first taxi off the rank. Pointing at my bit of paper he looked at it for a few seconds and then nodded. Off we went.

About fifteen minutes later we pulled up outside what looked like a dark double story house.

(I have a photo to upload but no time to edit/upload it, will do at a later date).

I showed the driver the address again and he made some pointing gestures and nodded. It then sank in that either I’d given the receptionist the wrong address, she’d copied it down wrong or the taxi driver had read it wrong.

Given I was the weakest link in the chain I figured I’d probably got the address wrong to begin with. Still I figured it was worth a show walking around a bit. I still felt like going out and I might find somewhere yet.

I paid the taxi driver and got out. The next forty five minutes walking around aimlessly down mostly dark streets. I didn’t see anything that was recognizable as a pub or anything really.

There were a few supermarkets, the obligatory 7-11’s and a ton of bright neon signs on top of shops that were clearly closed but nothing that looked inviting enough to someone with no clue.

I don’t know where the Lobby was but it definitely wasn’t anywhere near me.

Eventually I hailed a taxi and after presenting my hotel card wound up back at the hotel, tail between my legs.

I thought about calling up the one person I knew in Taiwan who spoke English but given our relationship was work related I thought better of mixing work with entertainment.

My first night out in Taiwan hadn’t gone exactly as planned. The receptionist smiled as she handed me my keys. I’d have loved to have paid a penny for her thoughts but the night girl spoke even less English then the day girl.

I got the feeling it wasn’t the first time she’d seen a lone foreigner’s plans defeated by the language barrier.